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“You send the bread down and then we’ll give you the women.” The leader elbowed the man next to him and grinned.
Boy kicked Rat’s shin. “Don’t send it down. They don’t plan on turning those women loose.”
Rat motioned for Molly to drop a loaf over the side.
Boy kicked him again. “What did I just say?”
“Trust me.” Rat watched the bread drop to the ground, and when it hit, he motioned for Molly to drop another one.
Boy kicked him again. “Are you deaf?”
Rat placed a hand on top of the robot’s head. “Please don’t do that again. It hurts, and I heard you the first time.” He motioned for Molly to drop a third loaf of bread then stepped out of Boy’s reach.
“Did your mother drop you on your head when you were born?” Boy joined Rat at the railing and peered over the side.
“Nope. My dad did, though—several times.”
All three men had a loaf of bread and were eating away as fast as they could.
“I told you they would never free those women,” and Boy looked up at Rat with his big unblinking eyes.
Rat was almost certain the tiny robot’s face would have expressed a smirk had his metal eyes and glass head allowed it.
“I told you to trust me.”
“Trust you to do what? Give those men all of your food supplies? If you want, I can save us a lot of unnecessarily wasted time by bringing everything out from the galley and throwing it overboard for you.” Boy continued to stare without blinking.
“Which part of trust me do you not understand? Just give it a minute.”
Both of them again peered over the side.
Time stretched out until finally, one after the other, the men tittered and fell onto their faces.
Rat looked over at Boy and grinned. “See?”
Boy leaned farther over the edge of the railing. “How did you manage to do that?”
“I had Molly add a large heap of sleeping powder in with the bread batter. My biggest fear was that the baking would affect how it worked.”
He patted Boy on the head. “Let’s go get those women. I have no idea how long the men will be out.”
Boy followed Rat as he headed toward the hatchway door. “Are you sure you didn’t kill them?”
Rat found it impossible to contain a long sigh. It was just like Boy to find something new to worry over. “I didn’t kill them.”
“How can you be so sure?”
Rat reached out to open the hatchway door but stopped long enough to reassure Boy. “I’ll check on them, but don’t get any funny ideas about bringing them on board too. These aren’t the type of people we can change.”
Stepping off the bottom step of the stairs, Rat rubbed his still painful stomach. “They’re mean, through and through. I’m not taking a chance on losing my airship out of some misguided belief I can fix what can’t be fixed. You forget that I lived with a cold-hearted man. They’re the type of people who think there’s nothing wrong with the way they behave. They’ll do anything to anyone if it gets them what they want.”
He faced Boy before pushing the hidden exit door open. “Guard this hatch until I get back. If something goes wrong, secure it and take Independence home without me.”
“I’m not leaving you here.” Boy covered Rat’s hand with his metal fingers. “Friends don’t leave friends.”
Rat squeezed Boy’s fingers. “But friends do keep their promises. You promised me before we headed out that you would trust me to know what was best for us, so now it’s time for you to keep your promise. You and Molly mean more to me than anyone. The two of you believed in me when Harmony still had her doubts and I’ve never forgotten that. So now I need for you to believe in me still.” He waited for Boy to nod his agreement. It wasn’t much of a sign but there was no doubt his friend would do as he promised.
Rat grinned and patted Boy’s head again. “I’ll be right back.” He slipped through the hatch’s opening and ran down the length of Independence, stopping short when he saw that the women were no longer where they had once been huddled. It took him a moment to spot them, unsurprised that they had taken advantage of their captors’ being temporarily out of action and were making a bid to escape. Damn, but they were a spunky lot. Now all he had to do was convince them he was here to help.
First, though, he had to check each unconscious man, so he could truthfully tell Boy he hadn’t killed any of them. This quickly done, he took off after the women. But when they saw him heading their way, they took off even faster. Damn, but they sure weren’t going to make this rescue easy.